Lincoln welcomes new resident deputy

Robert Rivera has spent the last month getting to know the community of Lincoln, after taking his post as the towns resident deputy sheriff in late October

Rivera takes over the position previously held by Chris Joyce, who opted to leave the LCSO in September. A trained glazier, Joyce chose to focus on both his family and on his business, Hollow Point Glass, a side job that grew into a full-time occupation for him.

Rivera has been with the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's office for only about a year, but brings several years of prior experience in community policing to his new post, as well as a family connection to Lincoln.

"It is important for us to have good quality personnel up here," Sheriff Leo Dutton said when he first introduced Rivera at the Nov. 2

Lincoln Government Day meeting. "The important part is having someone who lives up here, has family and who has community connections."

A job as a corrections officer at the private prison at Shelby kicked off Rivera's law enforcement career after high school. After a year there, he moved on to work as a detention officer in Cascade County before deciding he wanted to work on the street. Rivera did his testing through the Montana Law Enforcement Testing Consortium and received applications from different agencies in the state, including from Lewis and Clark County. However, he got a job with the Toole County Sheriff's Office first and returned to Shelby, where he spent four years developing an appreciation for police work in a small town.

"I was the DARE officer and School Resource Officer for the last two years I was there. I also did some DUI interdiction. I made it to rank of senior patrol deputy," he said.

Hoping to find a job closer to Lincoln, where his wife Emily's mother and stepfather Sarah and Zach Muse live, he applied for jobs with both Lewis and Clark County and with the University of Montana Police department.

"I ...ended up getting the job with the University first, so I took that." Rivera said. "I did that for about a year, before another opening here. I finally got the job here at Lewis and Clark County. It just so happened that the prior resident deputy here left the agency, so an opening came up. They offered me the position after I put in for it. I'm extremely happy the opportunity arose, and here we are."

Rivera, his wife and their four kids moved to Lincoln less than a week after the birth of their latest child and were fortunate to find a house to rent in Lincoln's tight housing market right off the bat.

Although Lincoln is only about half the size of Shelby, Rivera said he sees parallels between the two in terms of law enforcement.

"Similar type of calls and people, small town atmosphere that you learn to love," he said. "It's really nice how the community can band together and they all work together. Everyone wants to tell you what's going on and everyone has their eyes on things. In a bigger city, everyone is kind of stuck in their own little world a little bit more."

Since Rivera also helps cover Augusta and Wolf Creek, he said the volume of calls for service is about the same as what he saw in Shelby. Though he'll receive calls on his work cell while he's on duty, Rivera said he's aware that people calling deputies directly rather than calling 911 or the non-emergency number can cause difficulties at times.

"Maybe it's a little more personal when they can call you on your cell, but it actually helps us out a lot more if they call 911 or the non-emergency (number), because that creates paperwork, creates something we can track." he said. It also ensures calls don't get missed or overlooked. "If they're calling into dispatch, it creates a nice log for me to go back to and see the next thing I have to follow up on."

He said it's also important that people not wait to call if they have something to report, particularly in Lincoln.

"A lot of the times, the town blows up with people from out of town. If they are a suspect or a victim or a witness, come three days later it's hard for use track them down," he said.

For now, Rivera is still getting acquainted with the community and with the law enforcement issues here. Although the drug problem in Lincoln has seen a decline the last couple years, he's aware that it's something that still goes on behind the scenes, and he's starting to learn who's who in that regard.

He hasn't had anyone approach him with any new or pressing issues he's unaware of, but said that may just be because people don't know him yet. "It takes time," he said.